A narrow stone passageway greets us. It's barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through, and the floor slopes downward into the darkness.

I can't help but feel a sense of excitement at this.

Everything about the situation screams 'this is the beginning of a scary game', but this is a first experience for me.

It's thrilling to step forward into this unknown challenge.

"So..." Elara begins, "Let's have Arin and I take point with you in the middle-"

"Wait." I cut her off, my hand lashing out to grip her forearm and hold her still.

For a moment she gasps in surprise and stares at me. Then her face goes red, and I realize, belatedly, that I'm gripping a little too tightly. I let go. "Sorry, I just."

"I-it's alright!" Her voice is slightly strained but she nods, encouraging me to continue.

I hesitate a moment, trying to figure out how best to explain.

"There's always traps near the entrance in a dungeon like this."

It's what always happens, but I have no idea if the systems work the same.

"Master, you're correct!" That annoying voice has been quiet so long now I nearly startle when I hear it in my head all of a sudden. "There's a dead-weight trap just around the corner, waiting on someone to step over the tripwire located just at the turn of the hall!"

I roll my eyes.

Damn it.

I can't even solve a trap without this woman getting in the way!

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "...You know what, never mind."

There's no point now.

Kael speaks suddenly, standing next to me. "He's right." The man nods. "I can see something on the ground over there." He points. "I would have walked into it, too, if I hadn't thought to look a bit closer."

Elara blinks and looks between myself and Kael. "Wow...there's almost never any traps this early in a cave. There must be a huge treasure chest! A really huge one!"

I seriously doubt it, but it's not my place to say anything.

She hurries forward, putting a hand on the wall, and ducking slightly to peer around the corner.

As I watch, her expression shifts from excited to serious.

"Alright. I see what it is. Looks like if we set it off carefully it won't hurt us." She waves her arm and motions for Kael to come closer. "You're the expert, so what do you think?"

"Looks like a simple trap. Just an axe suspended on a rope that comes down, it'll cut you in half, but it'll only go off once. Just move out of the way..." He trails off. "And you've got it, exactly."

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That's all I needed to hear.

I shove past the two of them, not waiting to listen anymore, and walk forward, ducking to the right of where the axe will swing down.

I don't set off the trap, obviously. I'm not so heartless as to pointlessly hit party NPCs with traps.

I mean, if they walk right into them anyway, that's not my problem.

But it's too much trouble to go out of my way to do it.

It's just...not something I'd ever do in a game.

The path ahead stretches on what seems like forever, fading away into the darkness.

I guess I can't really expect there to be torches on sconces when we're going deep into a cave, even if the traps are very dungeon-esque.

When I glance back at the others, I watch Elara hold up a hand in the air.

A small tongue of flame flickers to life over her palm, scattering warm light across the rough-hewn walls and floor of the tunnel ahead of us.

"Careful going too far ahead." She gives me a cheeky smile. "You'll stumble into the darkness."

She makes a good point, so I let her pass me, and she moves to the front of our line again, using her fire magic to light the way as she walks slowly along the dim passageway.

Arin and Kael are at the back, as they planned earlier.

It's not long before the ground below my feet crunches as though I've stepped on something dry and brittle, and I pause, looking down.

A human skull.

I take a closer look around at the walls, noting the various skeletons littering the floor and the edges of the passage.

...You know...

In a video game I wouldn't think twice about it, but in this world, I can't help but wonder why there's suddenly a bunch of corpses piled up together like this deep in a cave tunnel, but past any visible traps.

Did they just have some kind of a fight over who got to own the tunnel? Was there once a king who held off an army in here?

"The answer is that the necromancer Fayn-El-Tine gathered them all here to defend his treasure~!" The cheerful voice in my head chirps unbidden.

What.

"Just wait until you get to the necromancer to find out! I won't spoil the plot~"

I will crush that annoying voice.

'Who even asked?!'

"But you just did!"

'I did NOT!'

"But you just did! I'm here to guide you and answer all your questions~"

I swear...

This is the kind of useless thing that only exists to bother players!

"Master, how could you?! I'm Cissy, your cute System Helper!"

When did this thing get to pick its own cute name??

"My name has always been Cissy, Master!"

'I am never calling you anything of the sort.'

Elara stares at me. "Are you okay? You look distracted. I know it seems boring now but it's really gonna-!"

I hold a hand up to interrupt her. "No, that's not it."

"Wh..." She hesitates, blinking rapidly. "Then what is it...?"

"Nevermind. It's nothing important." I'm not about to tell her about the annoying voice in my head.

The red-headed girl smiles and nods, continuing on ahead.

As we move deeper into the tunnels, the air gets staler, and colder. Soon I can see my breath forming small clouds as it rises into the air.

"Warning, Master! You're about to be attacked!"

'Dammit, don't just spoil the-'

I break off in the middle of my complaint when I hear a faint rattling of bones.

Just in front of Elara, a skeleton pops out of a crevice in the ground, clutching a crude looking spear in its bony hand.

The young woman lets out a loud gasp and reels backwards, narrowly avoiding a blow that would have impaled her, stumbling backward.

A second skeleton, with a cracked skull, charges at her from the shadows, and I move to help her, but there's a loud crashing sound as more come down from the ceiling, swinging axes.

All of the sudden, our nice, simple exploration group is under siege.

There's so many.

Elara shrieks and slashes at one of the attackers with her sword.

"Fall back!" Kael shouts. "We can't fight them like this, even with Arin we'll be overwhelmed!"

The young woman nods frantically and begins to back up quickly out of my sight.

I'm not about to run just yet.

This is obviously a forced failure battle - but I still want to at least try to get my feet wet on the combat.

I drop down and grab a club - it might have been a torch at one point - and swing it up toward one of the skeletons.

It collides with the undead creature's skull with a satisfying impact.

And then the creature shatters into dust.

"--Huh?"